Congressman Gerry Connolly announced in a recent congressional hearing that he was among the millions of current and former federal employees whose personal data was stolen when the OPM systems were hacked. Moreover, as Jack Moore reports, Congressman Connolly stated he’s learned that within the last several days thieves tried opening new credit cards in his name using his stolen personal information (nextgov.com; “Congressman: OPM Hack Data Being Used to Attempt Identity Theft”; October 6).

How did the Congressman learn about this attempted identity theft? He said that he was contacted by one bank after thieves tried getting the credit card. Mr. Moore wrote that OPM, the FBI and the intelligence community each said there hasn’t been any evidence of the OPM stolen data being fraudulently misused.

However, Congressman Connolly disagrees based on his own experience. After hearing from the one bank, he then contacted one of the identity protection companies OPM has hired to help track misuse of the stolen data. That company told the Congressman about the two attempts at the other banks — with the three banks being all around the country.

The Congressman’s experience is chilling news for the millions of federal employees impacted by the OPM hacks.